The Load of Chips

Mrs. Irvington's charity is tested when she meets Joseph Hickie, a ragged beggar who wants money but is offered honest work instead: carrying wood chips for breakfast and pay. His evasions and resentment expose a boy shaped by deceit and idleness, while Arthur Thompson, poor but sincere, earns her trust by speaking plainly about his starving mother. Moved by their suffering, Mrs. Irvington brings food, care, clothing, schooling, and steady employment to Arthur's family, and even after Mrs. Thompson's death, she continues to protect the boy as he grows healthier through labor, Sunday school, and companionship with Willie Irvington. The narrative widens to other neglected children and the adults who rescue them, including kind Mrs. Marsh, who takes in little Johnny from a filthy hovel and teaches him useful work, and the prosperous Olmsteads, whose disciplined household and quiet generosity support an orphan asylum. There, Arthur's gentle manners, gratitude, and piety transform stern cook Hepsah's attitude, and he becomes a cherished presence in the home. Throughout, the story contrasts honesty with cheating, industry with laziness, and compassionate discipline with neglect, arguing that labor, faith, and kindness can redeem even the most disadvantaged child. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.